The Cleveland Board of Zoning Appeals covers a lot of ground. In one meeting, the five-member, mayor-appointed board may review plans for a new 21-unit apartment building then hear from a resident wanting to run a child care service out of their home. What’s the common thread connecting the wide-ranging projects the board sees? People seeking relief from Cleveland’s zoning code.
The code – the core of which was adopted in 1929 – restricts what people can build throughout the city as well as what businesses or services they can offer from a home or building. The board votes on whether to grant or deny variances, which allow appellants to move forward with their projects despite conflicts with specific code sections.
Some approvals come with conditions.
In its Nov. 6 meeting, for example, the board approved a resident’s request to provide child care service from her home. It gave the owner several conditions, including the hours of operation, the age of the children served, and where pickup and dropoff would happen. It also approved a variance for an autoshop with conditions regarding business hours and the number of cars kept overnight and prohibiting car sales.
Dorothy Ajamu, a Cleveland Documenter since October 2020, covered that meeting and left with some questions:
- How will the board know if the conditions they required are met?
- Do they go out to the site to make sure?
- Are there consequences if conditions are not being met?
To get some answers, Signal Cleveland spoke with Director of Building and Housing Sally Martin O’Toole and Board of Zoning Appeals Secretary Liz Kukla.
What we learned
Enforcement of those conditions is out of the Board of Zoning Appeals’ hands. That responsibility belongs to the city Building and Housing department.
For construction projects – which can range from a fence installation to a new apartment building – the city could learn of a violation of the board’s conditions at two stages, O’Toole said.
Permitting stage
Having been granted a zoning variance, the property owner would seek a construction permit. The city’s plans examiners – typically architects and engineers – could catch a discrepancy between the drawings for a project and the zoning board’s conditions.
Construction stage
After the city issues a permit, construction can begin. Building inspectors could go to the construction site and note if there is a violation of the board’s conditions.
What about Cleveland zoning cases not tied to construction?
For cases not related to construction but rather use of a property (such as offering child care, operating an autoshop, or opening a tattoo parlor), the city would rely primarily on community complaints to learn if business owners aren’t meeting the board’s conditions, according to O’Toole. People could call 311, the city’s non-emergency phone line, she said.
City officials could also happen to notice the violation themselves, but O’Toole noted a difference between variances for use and those for construction.
“It’s a little more nebulous than some drawings that are perfectly, you know, fleshed out and they’re very clear,” she said.
The consequences of noncompliance
Like any other building and housing code enforcement issue, the city would ultimately prosecute cases of noncompliance in Cleveland Housing Court, O’Toole said. The city would likely first issue a violation notice to allow time for people to correct the issues, she added.
Why does the zoning board add conditions?
Kukla offered two scenarios when the board would be likely to add conditions to a variance approval:
- Cases that draw disagreement among stakeholders (such as appellants, their neighbors, the City Council member whose ward the project is in, and community development corporation officials)
- Routine cases in which the board knows additional conditions are needed (such as someone wanting to install a six-foot-tall fence along the edge of their yard)
Any conditions the board sets are valid only if a board member names them in the motion that is voted on, Kukla said.
Left wondering
Signal Cleveland is left wondering how often, if at all, people violate the board’s conditions as well as how often the city enforces them. O’Toole said she thinks it occurs from time to time, but she didn’t have an example to share.


Learn more
FAQ: Form-based code, a zoning reform plan coming to Cleveland
The Cleveland Planning Commission (CPC) is preparing to introduce form-based codes, an alternative to the zoning codes the city has relied on for generations. This shift will transform the decision-making processes that determine what gets built and where. Here’s a look at what it means.